Tag: Roar Rampage »

Pretty much everyone has been buzzing about "Pacific Rim" this month. The movie has been doing quite well from what I understand (plus it's freaking awesome), but like most summer blockbusters that popularity also equates to some tie-in games across multiple platforms. While I found the Xbox Live Arcade game to be pretty enjoyable, the iOS iterations - yes, there's more than the one - were both extremely disappointing. However all hope is not lost. While the Pacific Rim iOS title may have been a colossal (*rimshot*) letdown, there are still a fair number of great games on the platform featuring giant robots and giant monsters that can be quite a bit of fun.

GiganderX (Prodigy Co. Ltd, $0.99)
I've sampled a fair number of "giant robot" games across multiple platforms but none have managed to capture the oversized and plodding nature of these massive engines of destruction quite like Robot Alchemic Drive or Remote Control Dandy. And no other iOS games have managed to capture a similar feel of either title better than GiganderX. It's fairly simplistic - there's an extremely basic combo system, one special attack, and only a handful of levels - but it does an admirable job of making you feel like you're piloting a slow, lumbering, oversized toy as it combats other slow, lumbering, oversized toys.

Giant Metal Robot (Poppy, $0.99)
Giant Metal Robot is a bit unorthodox, but that's a big part of why I like it. You have to tilt your device to steer the young girl (and later her dog, too) along a rooftop, while swiping down to make the robot smash its fists. Flatten the little girl or her companion and it counts as a loss. Fail to smash all the skeletons that are chasing them around before time runs out and it's a loss. Accidentally launch the little girl off the roof after smashing something and you lose. It's deceptively tough, and yet it's easy enough to play that it should keep you entertained for a while.

My Little Monster (Group Sound, $0.99)
As a long time fan of giant monster movies, I can't not find the idea of raising and training my own to be both awesome and oddly charming. And that's before taking the adorable and weird characters, goofy skills, and ridiculous hats into consideration. It's an odd hybrid of virtual pet and simple action game, but it's also a neat distraction for any kaiju fan.

RoboCat Rampage (Luke Turvey, $1.99)
Some robots are more interested in preserving nature than in protecting humanity; and that's exactly what RoboCat Rampage is about. You move the enormous mechanized feline around each stage attempting to squish anything that looks industrial while also trying to avoid stepping on anything green (i.e. trees, etc). The more smoke-belching factories and vehicles you smash before reaching the end of the level, the higher your score and the happier the little woodland creatures will be.

The War of Eustrath (iQuibi Inc, $2.99)
Giant robots aren't a genre; they're a subject. So while The War for Eustrath may not seem quite as "typical" as the other games on this list, but it's definitely relevant and possibly one of the best. The characters are quirky in an eye-rolling kind of way, but it's a very competent strategy game. One that features some pretty cool-looking mechs. Cool-looking mechs that fight each other. It's like Xenogears crossed with Fire Emblem, and I can't think of a single thing about that description that isn't awesome.

OFFWORLD (6waves Lolapps, FREE)
I wasn't expecting to enjoy OFFWORLD's Rock-Paper-Scissors style combat as much as I did, honestly. But enjoy it I did, and I think it adds a fair bit of strategy to what could have otherwise been a very basic game. Not only is there plenty of mental back-and-forth as you try to predict your opponent's next move, there are also lots of customization options for various weapons and attachments. Plus it looks and animates gorgeously.

Monster Jam Jam (Behold Studios Jogos Electronicos LTDA ME, FREE)
I happened upon Monster Jam Jam accidentally, but I have to admit I was rather impressed by its no-frills simplicity. Each match is random, and the only difference between monsters is their appearance, so all you have to worry about is out-thinking your opponent (AI or otherwise). It uses a fairly simple combat system wherein each combatant picks an action (attack, power up, heal, defend) and attempts to guess what the other side is planning. No scores, no leaderboards, no upgrades or unlockables; just a bunch of quick pick-up-and-play kaiju action.

Roar Rampage (FDG Entertainment, $0.99)
What is it most people think of when they think about giant monsters? Property damage. And property damage is you'll get when you start playing Roar Rampage. The giant boxing glove-toting lizard moves along automatically, so all you have to worry about is flinging his fist all over the place in order to bust through buildings and knock helicopters out of the air. It's simple, destructive fun.

Destroy Gunners ZZ (SHADE Inc, FREE)
Destroy Gunners ZZ is a freemium/social sequel of sorts to the original Destroy Gunners; the latter of which has been one of my most preferred mech combat games to date. I decided to list the sequel over the original simply because it looks a little better, has a little more variety, and has had a few control refinements but the first game is also totally worth a look. Especially for any early series Armored Core fans hoping to find a comparable experience on iOS.

Robot Rampage (Origin8, FREE)
Just like people, not all robots are friendly. In fact, the robot headlining Robot Rampage is a total jerk. All it does is stomp around smashing everything in sight, while occasionally blasting stuff with lasers. Of course when you get to control the giant robo-jerk as it smashes up buildings and fries all military resistance with heat beams it's actually pretty cool.

Death Worm (PlayCreek, $1.99)
Not all vicious giant monsters walk around on two legs. In fact, some of them don't have any legs at all! And while watching a giant radioactive shellfish level a city can be pretty intimidating it can be just as bad when dealing with a subterranean horror you'll never see coming. Being said subterranean horror, rather than running from it for dear life, is a lot cooler. Especially when you can evolve new traits between levels.

Super Monsters Ate My Condo! ([adult swim], FREE)
Super Monsters Ate My Condo! is admittedly a bit of a stretch, but it features plenty of giant monsters so I figure it has a place on the list. Plus it's a lot of fun. The odd physics-based match-3 puzzles coupled with the quirky kaiju waiting to gobble up each high rise floor are a great match. It's the kind of game that could very easily make an hour disappear if you give it half the chance.

We Do Reviews

Every week, the experts here at 148Apps take on the hundreds of apps released weekly and take the time to sort through them, find the good ones, and write about them in depth. Isn't that spectacular? A few lucky ones become Editor's Choice, standing out above the many good apps and games with something just a little bit more to offer. Here are a few excerpted notable reviews from this past Valentine's Day week; for all of them, be sure to hit our Reviews Archive.

Versu is an ambitious first step into what could be an immensely compelling new medium of literature. It is well worth the download if for no other reason than to get in on the ground floor of what could genuinely be something special down the road. --Blake Grundman

At its core, Rock Runners is simply about level completion, but there are many other goals built in to the game to add replay value and challenge. Each level in Rock Runners has three additional goals built into it, with most of them concerning completion time, gem collection proficiency, and the ability to avoid damaging obstacles. --Campbell Bird

Continuing the trend that its predecessor set, Cordy 2 is a rather glorious platformer. While many of its ideas will remind players of great platformers gone by, especially the Sonic the Hedgehog series, none of it really matters when there’s so much fun to be had. --Jennifer Allen

Every now and then a game comes along that offers a real breath of fresh air: something truly unique. JOOL is that game. It’s a 2D arcade platformer with basic controls, but puts forth a very unique style. Whether starting with the good bird or his evil alter ego, players will need to use both characters to survive the infinite level design in order to earn the highest possible score. --Michael Carattini

...Ease of use is what makes Qwiki stand out so significantly. It’s actually fun to use as well as view the creations, much like Instagram. Filtering and basic editing completes the package, making Qwiki a very tempting proposition for those who want to show off a form of photo slideshow to their friends and family. --Jennifer Allen

Roar Rampage is loud, full of things to smash, and has a giant dinosaur wearing boxing gloves. With controls that improve on the Flash original and the ability to smash the Eiffel Tower, what’s not to love about Roar Rampage? --Carter Dotson

Other 148Apps Network Sites

Partner sites GiggleApps and Android Rundown publish some of the best reviews and news on the 'net about kids apps and Android apps, respectively. Be sure to head over to each site to read them fully. For now, though, check out some of the great content they served up this past week.

GiggleApps

Endless Alphabet is a charming and surprisingly sophisticated letters app for iPad that teaches words in a wonderfully unique way for a letters app. From the opening of this application, it is easy to tell that it is something special with the cast of colorful and creative monster characters parading across the screen, playing different instruments in ways that are quite captivating. --Amy Solomon

The Adventures of Captain Underpants is a cheeky story about two friends who love to pull pranks at school as well as writing comic books, especially The Adventures of Captain Underpants, about a super hero who actually flies around in his underwear. Things become complicated for the boys when they are caught pulling pranks at their school by their principal, who blackmails them until they are able to hypnotize their principal, yet things take a turn for the worse as the principal takes on the persona of Captain Underpants. --Amy Solomon

Snow Queen by the developers at Timecode is a very nice adaptation of the Hans Christian Andersen story of the same name – a lengthy tale traditionally told over seven stories. I am impressed by how this app also is broken into seven stories to create a thorough version of this classic story – nice to see as many times the Snow Queen is abridged, and oftentimes without the back story of how the magic mirror, which makes all things beautiful look ugly, is produced here by a goblin. It is this mirror, when broken, also negatively affects the people who get imbedded by these shards, making them see and feel as though everything around them is ugly as well. --Amy Solomon

Android Rundown

[img id="140x140xTransformers-Memory-Game-3-banner-140x140.jpg.pagespeed.ic.8Kb0yJHfs1.jpg"]Friday Free App Rundown - When I was a kid, I couldn’t wait to wake up on Saturday mornings to watch cartoons. There was an awesome lineup back then. In this week’s Free App Rundown we are going to talk about games based on Saturday morning cartoons. While there are paid games out there like The Dark Knight Rises and The Amazing Spider-Man, the games in this list are free. Let’s take a look. --Trevor Dobrygoski

[img id="140x140xPokemonTV-140x140.png.pagespeed.ic.WL20b7A_oB.png"]Pokemon TV App Now Available, Gotta Watch ‘Em All - The world’s favorite way to collect and fight exotic monsters, Pokemon, is still Nintendo-exclusive as far as the actual games go. But with The Pokemon Company International, the company rsponsible for licensing the franchise, being only affiliated with Nintendo, they are free to release some content to other platforms. In this case, this includes episodes of the long-running TV show, which can now be watched in the Pokemon TV App. Selected episodes from each “Region” that comprises each new generation of the game can be watched. The original Red & Blue games are Kanto region, for those wondering. Those are the ones with Misty and Brock. Go be nostalgic, children of the late 90’s and early 2000’s! --Carter Dotson

[img id="300x168xirt1-300x168.jpg.pagespeed.ic.TSeTZArS4V.jpg"]Ice Road Truckers is an infinite driving game that pitted ever-increasingly treacherous roads against mental reaction and physical dexterity. My job? Keep the big rig moving. Avoid obstacles. Collect coins. One button on the left or right pulled the truck in either direction, and tapping both buttons at the same time caused a boost of speed that revved the truck up, and was perfect for the ramps that appeared on either side of the world. There were also rock formations and huge trees that did their part to increase difficulty in the game. --Tre Lawrence

[img id="300x187xstop1-300x187.jpg.pagespeed.ic.dz_GI7Q5VM.jpg"]Looks like 2013 might be the year of the renegade robot. Zombies and menacing pizza will always be in our hearts, but robots are in. Stop The Robot is a cleverly-imagined tower defense game that pits roughneck kids against robots attempting to breach their backyard lawn fences. I started out at the bottom of the totem pole. There were three levels of difficulty, easy (Iron), medium (Steel) and hard (Titanium). Iron was opened by default, and I started off as Frank, The Slingshot King. Armed with my wooden weapom, I aimed and fired upon oncoming robots that were intent upon destroying the fence I was protecting. It started off easily enough, and, predictably got tougher, with more marching robots in spread-out clusters. --Tre Lawrence

[img id="ant-raid-5-300x187.png"]I wasnt really sure what to expect when I downloaded Ant Raid. I thought it might be another bug smasher game. There is a little of that in there, but there is also some other strategies needed to beat the levels. The overall plot of the game is to keep the ant’s home save from the other insects. The insects have been infected and are pretty much zombies. Okay, that right there grabbed my attention. --Trevor Dobrygoski

Roar Rampage is a game with a giant dinosaur punching things. Thankfully, the game is just as good as the concept. Players tap and drag on the screen to drag the giant dinosaur fist around, punching buildings, helicopters, anything that gets in the way, because dinos gonna dino. Players have 45 levels in which to punch things, and an endless World Tour mode, where they travel around the world, meet interesting people, and punch things. Players can earn gems for temporary powerups, but they’re mostly used on character customizations, like different colors and a USA flag boxing glove. U-S-A! U-S-A!

Using a giant dinosaur to smash buildings is just fun. Tapping and holding on the screen to smash the Sydney Opera House, or to punch a helicopter into another helicopter is just cool. Facilitating that experience is what this game does, allowing players to just pick it up and smash things whenever they feel like it. I was positively giddy while playing this.

The controls can be a bit finicky; they’re dramatically improved from the Flash version, and just tapping on the screen to punch in that direction works best, though dragging around does help to destroy bullets, but this is the moment where the experience can feel awkward to control. The game’s bonus levels, which combine Breakout with the punching mechanic, often lead to quick failures, at least initially, thanks to the ease of punching the ball backwards. That’s not gonna be good for business; that’s not gonna be good for anyone.

Roar Rampage is loud, full of things to smash, and a giant dinosaur wearing boxing gloves. With controls that improve on the Flash original and the ability to smash the Eiffel Tower, what’s not to love about Roar Rampage?